Competence and Performance Combined

In Competence and Performing in Language Teaching, Jack C.
Richards
discusses what language teachers need to know and do to be effective
classroom practitioners and language teaching professionals. By
exploring the knowledge, beliefs, and skills that exemplary language
teachers consistently make use of focussing on ten core dimensions
of language teaching expertise and practice Jack C. Richards helps
conceptualize the nature of competence, expertise, and professionalism
in language teaching.
Jack C. Richards is an internationally renowned specialist in English
Language Teaching and an applied linguist and educator. He is the
author of numerous professional books for English language teachers
as well as many widely used textbooks for English language students.
His titles include the best-selling Interchange series, Four Corners,
Passages, Connect, and Strategic Reading.
Competence and
Performance in
Language Teaching
Jack C. Richards
Competence and
Performance in
Language Teaching
Jack C. Richards
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Madrid, Cape Town, Dubai, Melbourne, New Delhi
Cambridge University Press
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www.cambridge.org
Cambridge University Press 2011
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and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2011
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 978-1-107-91203-8 Paperback
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Table of Contents
Introduction 1
1 The language proficiency factor 3
2 The role of content knowledge 5
3 Teaching skills 9
4 Contextual knowledge 11
5 The language teachers identity 14
6 Learner-focused teaching 16
7 Pedagogical reasoning skills 19
8 Theorizing from practice 22
9 Membership of a community of practice 25
10 Professionalism 27
Conclusions 29
References 30
Introduction 1

Introduction
What is it that language teachers need to know and do to be effective class-
room practitioners and language teaching professionals? How is this knowledge
and practice acquired? And how does it change over time? The issue of lan-
guage teachers knowledge and skill base is fundamental to our understanding
of effective teaching and to approaches to language teacher education. In this
paper I want to explore the knowledge, beliefs, and skills that language teachers
make use of in their practice. My focus is on the understandings and practices
of those teachers who would generally be regarded by their peers as exemplary
language teaching professionals. We all recognize those teachers when we work
with them. But what distinguishes the way they understand and approach their
work? In trying to answer this question, I will focus on ten core dimensions
of language teaching expertise and practice. They are not in any hierarchical
relationship, and there is some overlap among them, but they help lay out some
of the basic territory and will hopefully help conceptualize the nature of compe-
tence, expertise, and professionalism in language teaching.
But first a word of caution. The nature of what we mean by effec-
tiveness in teaching is not always easy to define because conceptions of good
teaching differ from culture to culture (Tsui 2009). In some cultures a good
teacher is one who controls and directs learners and who maintains a respectful
distance between the teacher and the learners. Learners are the more or less
passive recipients of the teachers expertise. Teaching is viewed as a teacher-con-
trolled and directed process. In other cultures the teacher may be viewed more
as a facilitator. The ability to form close interpersonal relations with students is
highly valued, and there is a strong emphasis on individual learner creativity and
independent learning. Students may even be encouraged to question and chal-
lenge what the teacher says. These different understandings of good teaching
are reflected in the following teacher comments.
When I present a reading text to the class, the students expect me to
go through it word by word and explain every point of vocabulary or
grammar. They would be uncomfortable if I left it for them to work it
out on their own or if I asked them just to try to understand the main
ideas. Egyptian EFL teacher
If a student doesnt succeed, it is my fault for not presenting the
materials clearly enough. If a student doesnt understand something, I
must find a way to present it more clearly. Taiwanese EFL teacher
2 Competence and Performance in Language Teaching
If I do group work or open-ended communicative activities, the students
and other colleagues will feel that Im not really teaching them. They
will feel that I didnt have anything really planned for the lesson and
that Im just filling in time. Japanese EFL teacher
The way a person teaches and his or her view of what good teaching is will
therefore reflect his or her cultural background and personal history, the con-
text in which he or she is working, and the kind of students in the class. For this
reason teaching is sometimes said to be situated and can only be understood
within a particular context. This is reflected in a comment by an Australian
student studying Chinese in China and reacting to the Chinese approach
to teaching:
The trouble with Chinese teachers is that theyve never done any real
teacher-training courses, so they dont know how to teach. All they do is
follow the book. They never give us any opportunity to talk. How in the
world do they expect us to learn?
Compare this with the comments of a Chinese student studying in Australia:
Australian teachers are very friendly, but they cant teach very well. I
never know where theyre going theres no system and I just get lost.
Also, theyre often very badly trained and dont have a thorough grasp of
their subject. (Brick 1991, 153)
Notwithstanding the reality of culturally determined understandings of good
teaching, I will focus in what follows on those dimensions of teacher knowl-
edge and skill that seem to be at the core of expert teacher competence and
performance in language teaching, at least from the perspective of a Western
orientation and understanding of teaching.
Competence and Performance in Language Teaching 3
1

The language proficiency factor
Most of the worlds English teachers are not native speakers of English, and it
is not necessary to have a nativelike command of a language in order to teach
it well (Canagarajah 1999). Some of the best language classes I have observed
have been taught by teachers for whom English was a foreign or second lan-
guage. Conversely some of the worst classes I have observed have been taught
by native speakers. So the issue is, how much of a language does one need to
know to be able to teach it effectively, and how does proficiency in a language
interact with other aspects of teaching (Bailey 2006; Kamhi-Stein 2009)?
To answer the first question we need to start by considering the lan-
guage-specific competencies that a language teacher needs in order to teach
effectively. These include the ability to do the following kinds of things:
J To comprehend texts accurately
J To provide good language models
J To maintain use of the target language in the classroom
J To maintain fluent use of the target
J To give explanations and instructions in the target language
J To provide examples of words and grammatical structures and give
accurate explanations (e.g., of vocabulary and language points)
J To use appropriate classroom language
J To select target-language resources (e.g., newspapers, magazines,
the Internet)
J To monitor his or her own speech and writing for accuracy
J To give correct feedback on learner language
J To provide input at an appropriate level of difficulty
J To provide language-enrichment experiences for learners
Learning how to carry out these aspects of a lesson fluently and comprehen-
sively in English is an important dimension of teacher learning for those whose
mother tongue is not English. There is a threshold proficiency level the teacher
needs to have reached in the target language in order to be able to teach effec-
tively in English. A teacher who has not reached this level of proficiency will be
more dependent on teaching resources (e.g., textbooks) and less likely to be
able to engage in improvisational teaching (Medgyes 2001).
For teachers who are native speakers of English, other discourse
skills will also need to be acquired skills that enable the teacher to manage
classroom discourse so that it provides maximum opportunities for language
learning. These discourse skills relate to the following dimensions of teaching:
J To be able to monitor ones language use in order to provide
suitable learning input
J To avoid unnecessary colloquialisms and idiomatic usage
J To provide a model of spoken English appropriate for students
learning English as an international language
J To provide language input at an appropriate level for learners
However, apart from the contribution to teaching skills that language profi-
ciency makes, research has also shown that a language teachers confidence is
also dependent upon his or her own level of language proficiency, so a teacher
who perceives herself to be weak in the target language will have reduced confi-
dence in her teaching ability and an inadequate sense of professional legitimacy
(Seidlhofer 1999). This may be why research into what teachers views of their
needs for professional development generally identifies the need for further
language training as a high priority (Lavender 2002).
A variety of approaches have been proposed to address the language
proficiency of non-nativespeaking English teachers. Many link the language
component to the methodology component, so that teachers practice the
language skills needed to implement particular classroom teaching strategies
(Cullen 1994; Snow, Kahmi-Stein, and Brinton 2006). In this way language
proficiency is linked to classroom teaching and to carrying out specific instruc-
tional tasks. Cullen (2002) uses lesson transcripts to help teachers develop a
command of classroom language. However, in general, insufficient attention
has been given to the issue of language proficiency in many TESOL teacher-
preparation programs.
2

The role of content knowledge
A recurring issue in second language teacher education concerns what the con-
tent knowledge or subject matter of language teaching is, and consequently the
question of what it is that we think teachers need to know in order to reach their
full potential as language teachers. This is the content knowledge dilemma,
and it has provided a ripe field for debate and discussion since SLTE emerged
as a discipline. Here I am distinguishing knowledge from skill, since while
there is little disagreement concerning the practical skills language teachers
need to master, there is much less agreement concerning what the formal or
academic subject matter of language teaching is. Content knowledge refers to
what teachers need to know about what they teach (including what they know
about language teaching itself), and constitutes knowledge that would not be
shared by teachers of other subject areas.
Traditionally the content knowledge of language teaching has been
drawn from the discipline of applied linguistics, which emerged in the 1960s
at about the same time that language teaching was being revitalized with
the emergence of new methodologies, such as audiolingualism and situational
language teaching (Richards and Rodgers 2001). Applied linguistics gener-
ated the body of specialized academic knowledge and theory that provided
the foundation of new approaches to language teaching, and this knowledge
base was represented in the curricula of MA programs that began to be offered
from this time. Typically it consisted of courses in language analysis, learning
theory, methodology, and sometimes a teaching practicum, but the practical
skills of language teaching were often undervalued. The debate over the rela-
tion between theory and practice has been with us ever since.
Some of the confusion that often appears in debate over the the-
ory-versus-practice issue is due to a failure to distinguish between disciplinary
knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. Disciplinary knowledge refers to
a circumscribed body of knowledge that is considered by the language teaching
profession to be essential to gaining membership to the profession. Such knowl-
edge is acquired by special training, and possessing knowledge of this kind
leads to professional recognition and status. It is important to stress here that
disciplinary knowledge is part of professional education and does not translate
into practical skills. When language teaching emerged as an academic discipline
in the 1960s, this disciplinary knowledge was largely drawn from the field of
linguistics, but today it encompasses a much broader range of content. For
example, it could include the history of language teaching methods, second
language acquisition, sociolinguistics, phonology and syntax, discourse analysis,
theories of language, critical applied linguistics, and so on.
Pedagogical content knowledge, on the other hand, refers to knowl-
edge that provides a basis for language teaching. It is knowledge that is drawn
from the study of language teaching and language learning itself and which
can be applied in different ways to the resolution of practical issues in language
teaching. It could include course work in areas such as curriculum planning,
assessment, reflective teaching, classroom management, teaching children,
teaching the four skills, and so on. The Teacher Knowledge Test developed by
Cambridge ESOL is an example of a recent attempt to provide a basis in rel-
evant pedagogical content knowledge for entry-level teachers.
The language teaching literature often divides clearly into texts
addressing either disciplinary knowledge or pedagogical content knowledge.
So, for example, we can compare a book such as Ortegas Understanding Second
Language Acquisition (2008) with Lightbown and Spadas How Languages Are
Learned (2006). Ortegas excellent book, like many tomes on second language
acquisition, contributes to disciplinary knowledge, throwing valuable light on
such issues as the critical period hypothesis, language transfer, cognition and lan-
guage learning, aptitude, and so on but does not deal with practical application.
Lightbown and Spadas book, on the other hand, contributes to pedagogi-
cal content knowledge since it is part of a series designed to resolve practical
issues in language teaching. Although it covers some of the same topics that are
included in Ortegas book, the focus is not so much on research issues involved
in investigating a phenomenon but practical implications of research. Similarly
a book such as Hallidays An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2004),
along with similar books dealing with models of language analysis, belongs to
the domain of disciplinary knowledge, whereas Parrotts Grammar for English
Language Teachers (2000) belongs to that of pedagogical content knowledge.
A sound grounding in relevant pedagogical content knowledge should
prepare teachers to be able to do things such as the following:
J Understand learners needs
J Diagnose learners learning problems
J Plan suitable instructional goals for lessons
J Select and design learning tasks
J Evaluate students learning
J Design and adapt tests
J Evaluate and choose published materials
J Adapt commercial materials
J Make use of authentic materials
J Make appropriate use of technology
J Evaluate their own lessons
The role of pedagogical content knowledge is demonstrated in a study by
Angela Tang (cited in Richards 1998), in which she compared two groups of
English teachers in Hong Kong one with training in literature and one with-
out such training and how they would exploit literary texts in their teaching.
Some of the differences between these two groups of teachers are seen in the
following summary of the research findings.
Literature majors Non-literature majors
Saw ways of dealing
with any difficulties the
texts posed.
Saw a wide variety of
teaching possibilities with
the texts
Addressed literary aspects
of the texts
Used a variety of strategies
to help students explore
the meanings of the texts
Worried about how to deal
with the difficulties the
texts posed
Planned to use the
texts mainly for
reading comprehension
Did not address literary
aspects of the texts
Mainly used questions to
check comprehension of
the texts
So we see here that possessing relevant content knowledge made a substantial
difference in how teachers planned their lessons. Teachers with relevant content
knowledge should consequentially be able to make better and more appropriate
decisions about teaching and learning and to arrive at more appropriate solu-
tions to problems than a teacher without such knowledge. However, the central
issue of what constitutes appropriate disciplinary knowledge and what is appro-
priate pedagogical content knowledge remains an unresolved issue, and studies
that have sought to investigate the impact of content knowledge on teachers
practices have produced very mixed results (Bartels 2005).
A further important component of professional knowledge in todays
classrooms has been termed technological pedagogical content knowledge,
or TPCK (Mishra and Koehler 2006) that is, the ability to incorporate and
integrate technology into teaching. Reinders (2009, 231) points out that
depending on the teachers level of technological expertise, this could involve
being able to first, use a certain technology; second, being able to create mate-
rials and activities using that technology; and third, being able to teach with
technology. The use of technology in teaching becomes more important in
present times because teachers also have to be able to keep up with the tech-
nological knowledge of their students. Young learners today have more access
to information and more tools available to them to manage their own learning.
Reinders (2009, 236) suggests that the challenge for teachers will be more
one of helping learners develop the skills to deal successfully with the increased
control and independence that technology demands.
Becoming a language teacher also involves learning to talk the talk,
that is, acquiring the specialized discourse that we use among ourselves and
that helps define the subject matter of our profession. This means becoming
familiar with several hundred specialized terms such as learner centeredness,
learner autonomy, self-access, alternative assessment, blended learning, task-based
instruction, phoneme, and common European Framework that we use on a daily
basis in talking about our teaching. Being able to use the appropriate discourse
(and, of course, understand what they mean) is one criteria for membership in
the language teaching profession.
3

Teaching skills
The initial challenge for novice teachers is to acquire the basic classroom skills
needed to present and navigate their lessons. Teaching from this perspective is
an act of performance, and for a teacher to be able to carry herself through the
lesson, she has to have a repertoire of techniques and routines at her fingertips.
These include routines and procedure for such things as:
J Opening the lesson
J Introducing and explaining tasks
J Setting up learning arrangements
J Checking students understanding
J Guiding student practice
J Monitoring students language use
J Making transitions from one task to another
J Ending the lesson
What we normally mean by the term teacher training refers to instruction in
basic classroom skills such as these, often linked to a specific teaching context.
Training involves the development of a repertoire of teaching skills, acquired
through observing experienced teachers and often through practice teaching
in a controlled setting using activities such as micro-teaching or peer teaching.
Good teaching from a training perspective is viewed as the mastery of a set of
skills or competencies. Experiencing teaching in a variety of different situations,
with different kinds of learners and teaching different kinds of content, is how
a repertoire of basic teaching skills is acquired. Over time, experience is said
to lead to the development of routines that enable these kinds of skills to be
performed fluently, automatically, and with less conscious thought and atten-
tion, enabling the teachers attention to focus on other dimensions of the lesson
(Tsui 2009; Borg 2006).
This view of the process of teaching has been extended through
research on teacher cognition (Borg 2006, 2009). Concepts such as teacher
decision making introduce a cognitive dimension to the notion of skills, since
each skill involves the teachers engaging in sophisticated processes of obser-
vation, reflection, and assessment and making online decisions about which
course of action to take from a range of available alternatives. These interactive
decisions often prompt teachers to change course during a lesson, based on
critical incidents and other unanticipated aspects of the lesson.
As teachers accumulate experience and knowledge there is thus a move
toward a degree of flexibility in teaching and the development of what is some-
times called improvisational teaching. Thus, research reviewed by Borg and
others hence describes some of the following characteristics of expert teachers:
J They have a wide repertoire of routines and strategies that they can
call upon.
J They are willing to depart from established procedures and use
their own solutions and are more willing to improvise.
J They learn to automate the routines associated with managing the
class; this skill leaves them free to focus on content.
J They improvise more than novice teachers they make
greater use of interactive decision making as a source of their
improvisational performance.
J They have more carefully developed schemata of teaching on
which to base their practical classroom decisions.
J They pay more attention to language issues than novice teachers
(who worry more about classroom management).
J They are able to anticipate problems and have procedures available
to deal with them.
J They carry out needed phases more efficiently, spending less time
on them.
J They relate things that happen to the bigger picture, seeing them
not in the context of a particular lesson.
J They distinguish between significant and unimportant issues
that arise.
So while learning to teach from the perspective of skill development can be
thought of as the mastery of specific teaching competencies, at the same time
these reflect complex levels of thinking and decision making, and it is these
cognitive processes that also need to be the focus of teacher training. From
the perspective of teacher cognition, teaching is not simply the application of
knowledge and of learned skills. It is viewed as a much more complex cogni-
tively driven process affected by the classroom context, the teachers general
and specific instructional goals, the teachers beliefs and values, the learners
motivations and reactions to the lesson, and the teachers management of criti-
cal moments during a lesson.
4

Contextual knowledge
A key factor in understanding any teaching situation is the social
and physical context the rules, facilities, values, expectations, and
personal backgrounds, which act as resources, constraints, and direct
influences on teaching and learning. (Posner 1985, 2)
Sociocultural perspectives on learning emphasize that learning is situated; that
is, it takes place in specific settings or contexts that shape how learning takes
place. Language teachers teach in many different contexts, and in order to
function in those contexts they need to acquire the appropriate contextual
knowledge that will enable, for example, an Australian teacher to learn how
to be an effective teacher in China or vice versa, or a Singapore teacher how
to be an effective EFL teacher in Japan. Different contexts for teaching create
different potentials for learning that the teacher must come to understand. For
example, a teacher might be teaching in a campus-based ESL program, in a
local public school, in a community college, or in a private language institute.
Depending on the context, the learners may be children, teenagers, or adults
and may represent a variety of different social, economic, cultural, and educa-
tional backgrounds. Different teaching contexts hence present different notions
of the process of language teaching (Zeichner and Grant, 1981). Teacher learn-
ing thus involves developing not only the skills of teaching but also the norms of
practice expected of teachers in a school, both inside and outside the classroom.
Teaching involves understanding the dynamics and relationships within the
classroom and the rules and behaviors specific to a particular setting. Schools
have their own ways of doing things. In some schools, textbooks are the core
of the curriculum and teachers follow a prescribed curriculum. In others, teach-
ers work from course guidelines and implement them as they see fit. In some
institutions there is a strong sense of professional commitment, and teachers are
encouraged to co-operate with each other. In others, teachers work in relative
isolation. This is reflected in many different aspects of the way the school func-
tions, as we see in the following comments of student teachers on the schools in
which they are carrying out their practice teaching.
I love the school where I am working. The teachers I have met seem real
friendly and helpful, and my co-operating teacher goes out of her way to
make me feel comfortable in her class. Judy
The teachers in the school where I am teaching seem to have little contact
with each other. There are a lot of part-time teachers who just teach their
classes and disappear. I get a sense that there is not a strong feeling of
collegiality among the teachers in the school. Robert
The teacher I am working with is very strict about everything. Seems like
the school has lots of procedures teachers have to follow and I have to do
things exactly the way they like to do them. Andrew
My first few weeks went really well, then I had to work in a different
class and I found the students very difficult to work with. They didnt
seem to be interested in learning. Anna
The notion of context here is hence a very broad one, since it includes issues
such as the schools goals and mission; its management style and school cul-
ture; its physical resources, including classroom facilities, media, and other
technological resources; the curriculum and course offerings; the role of text-
books and tests; as well as the characteristics of teaches and learners in the
school. Some of these factors have to do with structural influences (i.e.,
those to do with life in the classroom and the school in general), whereas oth-
ers belong to the domain of personal influences (i.e., they come from other
persons the teacher interacts with while at the school, including the learners,
other teachers in the school, and in some cases the learners parents). As Miller
(2009, 10) comments:
Knowing the school, the possibilities of the classroom space, the
students, their neighbourhoods, the resources, the curriculum and
policy, the supervising teacher these are all critical elements that
affect what teachers can do, and how they negotiate and construct
identity moment to moment.
Teaching in a school thus involves understanding the specific values, norms of
practice, and patterns of social participation of that school. This will include
understanding such things as the role of the prescribed curricula, the school cul-
ture, the routines of the classroom, the schools procedures for lesson planning,
and learning how to interact with students, school authorities, and colleagues.
It involves induction into a community of practice, Lave and Wengers (1991)
concept for learning that takes place within organizational settings, which is
socially constituted and which involves participants with a common interest col-
laborating to develop new knowledge and skills. In the school, teacher learning
takes place through classroom experiences and is contingent upon relation-
ships with mentors and fellow novice teachers, and interaction with experienced
teachers in the school. The teachers teacher education course constitutes the
start of the teachers professional development, subsequent learning taking
place in the particular context provided by the school. Learning to teach within
a specific teaching context is therefore a process of socialization. Learning to
teach involves becoming socialized into a professional culture with its own
goals, shared values, and norms of conduct. This hidden curriculum is often
more powerful than the schools prescribed curriculum.
5

The language teachers identity
One of the things a person has to learn when he or she becomes a language
teacher is what it means to be a language teacher. A sociocultural perspective
on teacher learning posits a central aspect of this process as the reshaping of
identity and identities within the social interaction of the classroom. Identity
refers to the differing social and cultural roles teacher-learners enact through
their interactions with their students during the process of learning. These
roles are not static but emerge through the social processes of the classroom.
Identity may be shaped by many factors, including personal biography, culture,
working conditions, age, gender, and the school and classroom culture. The
concept of identity thus reflects how individuals see themselves and how they
enact their roles within different settings. In a teacher education program a
teacher-learners identity is remade through the acquisition of new modes of
discourse and new roles in the course room. Teacher learning thus involves not
only discovering more about the skills and knowledge of language teaching but
also what it means to be a language teacher.
In a training course or campus-based teacher education program, the
student teachers identity emerges through the acquisition of new modes of dis-
course as well as new roles in the campus classroom. Once the student teacher
starts teaching his or her identity is gradually reshaped into the role of teacher.
This transition is not always easy and can create stress and anxiety.
For many ESL teachers their identity may partly reflect their wish to empower
immigrants, refugees, and others for whom English is a way out of their current
circumstances (Cooke and Simpson 2008), as these comments suggest:
When I went into the class first to observe my cooperating teacher I was
so shocked at the reality of the differences in ethnic backgrounds of all the
students and wondered how I would manage this and what my role was
as a teacher of English. When I started to teach the class and got to know
them better I realized my role would not only be to teach them how to
speak English but also how to navigate the culture outside the classroom
because now they were in a new country (USA). I realized that I would
take on another role as that of cultural ambassador as I explained more
and more about the US to them during and even after class. Eventually,
I had them all over to my house. Eva
Since I have been in teaching practice and inside teaching a real class
with real ESL students I no longer feel an outsider in this profession even
though I am a non-native speaker of English. Now that I have had a
chance to prove myself as a teacher in front of these students and shown
them that I know many different techniques as well as my skills using
English (yes, and even if I still have a bit of an accent), they have begun
to accept me as their teacher and I am beginning to feel more like a
teacher of English. Momoko
Native-speaker and non-nativespeaker teacher learners may bring different
identities to teacher learning and to teaching. Those untrained native speakers
teaching EFL overseas face a different identity issue: They are sometimes cred-
ited with an identity they are not really entitled to (the native speaker as expert
syndrome), finding that they have a status and credibility that they would not
normally achieve in their own country. In language institutes, students may
express a preference to study with native-speaker teachers, despite the fact that
such teachers may be less qualified and less experienced that non-nativespeaker
teachers. For non-nativespeaker teachers studying in SLTE programs, identity
issues may lead some to feel disadvantaged compared to native-speaker teach-
ers in the same course. Whereas in their own country they were perceived as
experienced and highly competent professionals, they now find themselves at a
disadvantage and may experience feelings of anxiety and inadequacy. They may
have a sense of inadequate language proficiency, and their unfamiliarity with the
learning styles found in British or North American university course rooms may
hinder their participation in some classroom activities.
6

Learner-focused teaching
Although teaching can be viewed as a type of teacher performance, the goal
of teaching is to facilitate student learning. The extent to which the focus of a
lesson is teacher- rather than learner-focused is reflected in the following aspects
of the lesson:
J The amount of talking the teacher does during the lesson
J The extent to which input from learners directs the shape and
direction of the lesson
J The extent to which the teachers primary preoccupation during
the lesson is with such things as classroom management, control,
and order
J The extent to which the lesson reflects the teachers lesson plan
Some teachers, however, achieve a more learner-focused approach to teaching
in their lessons, and this is reflected in characteristics like these:
J The degree of engagement learners have with the lesson
J The extent to which learners responses shape the lesson
J The quantity of student participation and interaction that occurs
J The learning outcomes the lesson produced
J The ability to present subject matter from a learners perspective
J The teachers ability to reshape the lesson based on
learner feedback
J The extent to which the lesson reflects learners needs
and preferences
J The degree to which the lesson connects with the learners
life experiences
J The manner in which the teacher responds to learners difficulties
We see these different perspectives on lessons in how two teachers responded
to the question, What constitutes an effective language lesson from
your perspective?
Teacher A:
Its important to me that I achieve the goals I set for the lesson and dont
skip things I planned to cover. I need to feel I did a good job on covering
the different stages of the lesson the presentation phase, the practice
stage, and the free production stage for example.
Teacher B:
To me the most important thing is that the students enjoyed themselves
and had useful practice. And that the lesson was at the right level
for them not too easy or too difficult so that they felt it was really
worthwhile coming to class today.
Or in the two teachers view of their teaching philosophy:
Teacher A:
I believe the best lesson is a well-planned lesson. I find it much easier to
teach when I have a detailed plan to follow. I find that I am more likely
to use the time efficiently in the classroom if I know exactly what I will
do and what I expect students to do during the lesson.
Teacher B:
I believe every child in my class has got the capacity to learn, even if he
or she is not aware of it. Every learner is a winner. I try to encourage
each student to discover what he or she is good at and to help them be
successful at it.
It is natural when one first starts teaching to be preoccupied with ones own
performance as a teacher; to try to communicate a sense of confidence, com-
petence, and skill; and to try to create lessons that reflect purpose, order, and
planning. It is a period when things are being tried out and tested, when the
teachers role and identity is being developed, and when many new challenges
have to be overcome. Hence studies of teachers in their first year of teaching
have revealed a transition from a survival and mastery stage where the teachers
performance is a central concern, to a later stage where teachers become more
focused on their students learning and the impact of their teaching on learn-
ing (Farrell 2009). The challenge is to make sure that such a transition occurs
and that ones initial teaching experiences do not lead to a style of teaching
that sticks, one that provides a comfort zone for the teacher but which fails to
provide learners with the opportunity to achieve their full potential as learners
(Benson 2001).
Learner-centeredness as a characteristic of expert teachers is seen in
some of the research Borg reviews (Borg 2006), where these are the character-
istics of expert teachers:
J They are familiar with typical student behaviors.
J They use their knowledge of learners to make predictions about
what might happen in the classroom.
J They build their lessons around students difficulties.
J They maintain active student involvement.
Senior (2006) suggests that a central aspect of learner-focused teaching is creat-
ing a classroom that functions as a community of learners.
It is sometimes forgotten that language classes operate as
communities, each with its own collection of shared understandings
that have been built up over time. The overall character of each
language class is created, developed, and maintained by everyone in
the room. (p. 200)
Effective teachers use different strategies to develop a sense of community
among their learners, including using group-based activities, by addressing
common student interests and concerns, by regularly changing seating arrange-
ments so that students experience working with different classmates, by using
humor and other ways of creating a warm and friendly classroom atmosphere,
and by recognizing that students have both social as well as learning needs in
the classroom.
The ability to personalize ones teaching is also an important aspect
of learner-focused teaching. By personalizing teaching I mean centering ones
teaching wherever possible on ones students and their lives, concerns, goals, and
interests. This can be achieved by linking the content of lessons to the students
lives and by involving students in developing or choosing the content of lessons
(Dornyei 2001). Take, for example, teaching narratives. Whereas the textbook
might provide examples of what narratives are and describe their linguistic and
textual features, having students share personal stories among themselves can be
a powerful way of promoting genuine communication among students. In shar-
ing accounts of their childhoods and discussing significant events or experiences
in their lives, students will be prompted to practice and develop their commu-
nicative resources by asking questions, asking for clarification, responding with
their experiences, and so on.
Students can also be involved in generating lesson content. For exam-
ple, they can work in groups to choose suitable topics for essay writing. Instead
of using examples from the textbook to present a lesson on idioms, students
might compile lists of idioms they have encountered out of class and bring
these to class for discussion. Learner-centeredness in teaching thus reflects the
view that language teaching is an educational endeavour which should seek to
empower learners by enabling them to assume an informed and self-directive
role in the pursuance of their language-related life goals (Tudor 1996, xii).
7

Pedagogical reasoning skills
An important component of current conceptualizations of SLTE is a focus on
teacher cognition. This encompasses the mental lives of teachers, how these are
formed, what they consist of, and how teachers beliefs, thoughts, and thinking
processes shape their understanding of teaching and their classroom practices.
Borg (2006) comments:
A key factor driving the increase in research in teacher cognition,
not just in language education, but in education more generally,
has been the recognition that teachers are active, thinking decision-
makers who play a central role in shaping classroom event. Couple
with insights from the field of psychology which have shown how
knowledge and beliefs exert a strong influence on teacher action, this
recognition has suggested that understanding teacher cognition is
central to the process of understanding teaching. (p. 1)
An interest in teacher cognition entered SLTE from the field of general edu-
cation, and brought with it a similar focus on teacher decision making, on
teachers theories of teaching, teachers representations of subject matter, and
the problem-solving and improvisational skills employed by teachers with differ-
ent levels of teaching experience during teaching. Constructs such as teachers
practical knowledge, pedagogic content knowledge, and personal theories of
teaching are now established components of our understanding of teacher cog-
nition (Golombek 2009).
A central aspect of teacher cognition is the role of the teachers peda-
gogical reasoning skills, the specialized kind of thinking that teachers posses
and make use of in planning and conducting their lessons. Here is an example
of how teachers use these skills. I recently gave an expert teacher the following
challenge. A teacher has just called in sick. You are going to teach her 50-min-
ute spoken English class, lower-intermediate level, in five minutes. Your only
teaching aid is an empty glass. What will your lesson look like?
The teacher thought about it for less than a minute and then elabo-
rated her idea for the lesson.
1. I would start by showing the glass and asking students to form
groups and brainstorm for five minutes to come up with the
names of as many different kinds of containers as possible.
They would then group them according to their functions. For
example, things that contain food, things that are used to carry
things, things that are used to store things in, and so on. I would
model how they should do this and suggest the kind of language
they could use. (10 minutes)
2. Students would present their findings to the class to see who had
come up with the longest list. (10 minutes)
3. For a change of pace and to practice functional language I would
do some dialog work, practicing asking to borrow a container
from a neighbor. First I would model the kind of exchange I want
them to practice. Then students would plan their dialog following
this outline:
a) Apologize for bothering your neighbor.
b) Explain what you want and why you need it.
c) Your neighbor offers to lend you what you want.
d) Thank your neighbor and promise to return it over
the weekend.
Students would then perform their dialogs.
This is a good example of a teachers pedagogical reasoning skills. These are the
special skills that enable English teachers to do the following:
J Analyze potential lesson content (e.g., a piece of realia, as in the
preceding example, a text, an advertisement, a poem, a photo, etc.)
and identify ways in which it could be used as a teaching resource
J Identify specific linguistic goals (e.g., in the area of speaking,
vocabulary, reading, writing, etc.) that could be developed from
the chosen content
J Anticipate any problems that might occur and ways of
resolving them
J Make appropriate decisions about time, sequencing, and
grouping arrangements
Shulman (1987) described this ability as a process of transformation in which
the teacher turns the subject matter of instruction into forms that are pedagogi-
cally powerful and that are appropriate to the level and ability of the students.
Experienced teachers use these skills every day when they plan their lessons,
when they decide how to adapt lessons form their course book, and when they
search the Internet and other sources for materials and content that they can use
in their classes. It is one of the most fundamental dimensions of teaching, one
that is acquired through experience, through accessing content knowledge, and
through knowing what learners need to know and how to help them acquire
it. While experience is crucial in developing pedagogical reasoning skills, work-
ing with more experienced teachers through shared planning, team teaching,
observation, and other forms of collaboration can also play an important role in
helping less experienced teachers understand the thinking processes employed
by other more experienced teachers.
8

Theorizing from practice
Mastery of teaching skills and the specialized thinking skills expert teachers
make use of are essential aspects of teacher development. But teacher learning
also involves developing a deeper understanding of what teaching is, of develop-
ing ideas, concepts, theories, and principles based on our experience of teaching
(Borg 2006). The development of a personal system of knowledge, beliefs, and
understandings drawn from our practical experience of teaching is known as the
theorizing of practice. The belief system and understanding we build up in this
way helps us make sense of our experience and also serves as the source of the
practical actions we take in the classroom. To better understand the concept of
theorizing of practice it will be useful to contrast two ways of thinking about
the relationship between theory and practice. The first is the application of
theory. This involves making connections between the concepts, information,
and theories from our teacher education courses and our classroom practices; it
involves putting theories into practice. So after studying the principles of task-
based instruction or collaborative learning, for example, we might try to find
ways of applying these principles in our teaching.
The theorizing of practice on the other hand involves reflecting on
our practices in order to better understand the nature of language teaching and
learning and to arrive at explanations or hypotheses about them. The informa-
tion we make use of is the experience of teaching, observations of how our
learners learn or fail to learn, and our reflections on things that happen dur-
ing our lessons. The theorizing that results from these reflections may take
several different forms. It may lead to explanations as to why things happen
in the way they do, to generalizations about the nature of things, to principles
that can form the basis of subsequent actions, and to the development of a
personal teaching philosophy (Richards 1998). The following examples taken
from teachers narratives and journals illustrate teachers beginning to theorize
from practice.
Arriving at explanations and generalizations
Children are much better language learners than adults because they
are not worried about making mistakes and are much more prepared to
take risks.
When we begin learning a language its better to follow the natural
way, using imitation. But when you are more advanced, then you need
to know more about the grammar.
The essential thing in language learning is knowing how to say what
you want to say but not why you have to say it in a particular way.
Learners learn more when they work in groups because they can learn
from each other and they get more opportunities to talk than when the
teacher is conducting the class.
Error correction works best when you ask students to monitor their own
language, rather than having them depend on the teacher all the time.
Developing principles and a teaching philosophy
A further stage in theorizing from practice is when teachers formulate principles
that they refer to when planning and evaluating their teaching and to the per-
sonal philosophy which guides their decision making (Bailey 1996). Here is an
example of a teacher describing some of the beliefs and principles she brings to
her teaching:
I think its important to be positive as a personality. I think the
teacher has to be a positive person. I think you have to show a
tremendous amount of patience. And I think if you have a good
attitude you can project this to the students and hopefully establish
a relaxed atmosphere in your classroom so that the students wont
dread to come to class but have a good class. I feel that its important
to have a lesson plan of some sort. Because you need to know what
you want to teach and how you are going to go from the beginning
to the end. And also taking into consideration the students, what
there ability is, what their background is and so on. I have been in
situations where I did not understand what was being taught or hat
was being said, and how frustrating it is and so when I approach it I
say: how can I make it the easiest way fort them to understand what
they need to learn?
This teachers philosophy emphasizes the teachers attitude and the need to
create a supportive environment for learning in the classroom. She stresses the
need for lesson planning, but her justification for lesson planning is based on
helping the students rather than helping the teacher. Other examples of prin-
ciples which teachers have described in journals and conversations include:
J Follow the learners interest to maintain students involvement.
J Always teach to the whole class - not just to the best students.
J Seek ways to encourage independent student learning.
J Make learning fun.
J Build take-away value in every lesson.
J Address learners mental processing capacities.
J Facilitate learner responsibility or autonomy.
Activities in which teachers articulate their theories, beliefs and principles are
an important component of professional development and journal-writing, nar-
ratives, discussion and critical reflection can all be used for this purpose. The
theorizing that results from these procedures often provides the basis for inter-
preting and evaluating ones own teaching as well as the teaching of others.
9

Membership of a community
of practice
Language teaching is sometimes considered a solitary and private activity, some-
thing we do within the confines of our own classrooms. But this is a narrow
and self-centered view of teaching that fails to capitalize on the potential for
learning and growth that comes from participating in a community of teachers
having shared goals, values, and interests. The school or the teaching context
becomes a learning community, and its members constitute a community of
practice. A community of practice has two characteristics:
1. It involves a group of people who have common interests and who
relate and interact to achieve shared goals.
2. It focuses on exploring and resolving issues related to the
workplace practices that members of the community take part in.
In our work as language teachers this often takes the form of collaboration
with other teachers in order to better understand the nature of the teaching
and learning that goes on in our classrooms, to share knowledge and skills, to
bring about changes in practice when necessary, and to capitalize on the poten-
tials that team work and group collaboration can bring about. Membership
in a community of practice in a school provides opportunities for teachers to
work and learn together through participation in group-oriented activities with
shared goals and responsibilities, involving joint problem solving. Collegiality
creates new roles for the teacher, such as team leader, teacher trainer, mentor, or
critical friend (Richards and Farrell 2005).
This collaboration can take a number of different forms (Johnston
2009). For example:
Collaboration with fellow teachers. This often involves a focus
on teaching issues and concerns, such as use of the textbook,
development of tests, and course planning.
Collaboration with university colleagues. This may involve
collaborative research or inquiry into issues of shared interest,
such as exploring aspects of second language acquisition or
learning strategies.
Collaboration with others in the school. This may involve working with
administrators or supervisors on issues of concern to the school.
An example of how this kind of collaboration can happen is with the Lesson
Study Approach that has been widely implemented in Japan (Lewis and Tsuchida
2003). As reported by Johnson (2009), teams of teachers co-plan a lesson that
focuses on a particular piece of content of unit of study. Throughout the plan-
ning process, they draw on outside resources, including textbooks, research,
and teaching theories, and engage in extended conversations while focusing on
student learning and the development of specific outcomes. Once the plan has
been developed, one member of the team volunteers to teach it, while the others
observe. (Sometimes outsiders are also invited to observe). After the lesson, the
group discuss their findings in a colloquium or panel discussion. Typically the
teachers who planned the lesson focus on their rationale for how they planned
the lesson and their evaluation of how it went, particularly focusing on student
learning. The planning group then reconvene to review the lesson and revise it,
and a different teacher then teaches it to a different class.
The cycle culminates in the team publishing a report that includes les-
son plans, observed student behavior, teacher reflections, and a summary of the
group discussions. These are then made available to others.
Many forms of professional development can help foster the sense of a
community of practice, such as reading groups, action research, team teaching,
peer observation, and peer coaching. However, this may require a change in
mind-set for some teachers who do not see themselves as members of a team.
For others, collaboration can be seen as a source of strength that can have valu-
able personal as well as practical benefits. Making the transition from seeing
oneself as a self-contained independent individual to seeing oneself as a member
of a community of practice is an important component of the shaping of teacher
identity and an important milestone in professional development.
10

Professionalism
English language teaching is not something that anyone who can speak English
can do. It is a profession, which means that English teaching is seen as a career
in a field of educational specialization, it requires a specialized knowledge base
obtained through both academic study and practical experience, and it is a field
of work where membership is based on entry requirements and standards. The
professionalism of English teaching is seen in the growth industry devoted
to providing language teachers with professional training and qualifications;
in continuous attempts to develop standards for English language teaching
and for English language teachers; to the proliferation of professional journals
and teacher magazines, conferences, and professional organizations; to require-
ments for English teachers to demonstrate their level of proficiency in English
as a component of certification; to the demand for professional qualifications
for native-speaker teachers; and to the greater level of sophisticated knowledge
of language teaching required of English teachers. Becoming an English lan-
guage teacher means becoming part of a worldwide community of professionals
with shared goals, values, discourse, and practices but one with a self-critical
view of its own practices and a commitment to a transformative approach to
its own role.
There are two different dimensions to professionalism (Leung 2009).
The first can be called institutionally prescribed professionalism a managerial
approach to professionalism that represents the views of ministries of education,
teaching organizations, regulatory bodies, school principals, and so on that
specify what teachers are expected to know and what constitutes quality teach-
ing practices. There are likely to be procedures for achieving accountability and
processes in place to maintain quality teaching. Such specifications are likely to
differ from country to country. This aspect of professionalism involves becom-
ing familiar with the standards the profession sets for membership and a desire
to attain those standards. Such standards involve acquiring the qualifications the
profession recognizes as evidence of professional competence, as well as demon-
strating a commitment to attaining high standards in our work, whether it be as
classroom teachers, supervisors, administrators, or teacher trainers.
The second dimension to professionalism is what Leung calls indepen-
dent professionalism, which refers to teachers own views of teaching and the
processes by which teachers engage in reflection on their own values, beliefs,
and practices. A key to long-term professional development is the ability to be
able to reflect consciously and systematically on ones teaching experiences.
Reflection means asking questions like these about ones teaching:
1. What kind of teacher am I?
2. What am I trying to achieve for myself and for my learners?
3. What are my strengths and limitations as a language teacher?
4. How do my students and colleagues view me?
5. How and why do I teach the way I do?
6. How have I developed as a teacher since I started teaching?
7. What are the gaps in my knowledge?
8. What role do I play in my school, and is my role fulfilling?
9. What is my philosophy of teaching, and how does it influence my
teaching?
10. What is my relationship with my colleagues, and how productive
is it?
11. How can I mentor less experienced teachers?
There are many ways in which teachers can engage in critical and reflective
review of their own practices throughout their teaching career (see Richards
and Lockhart 1994; Richards and Farrell 2005), for example, through the
analysis of critical incidents, teacher support groups, journal writing, discus-
sion groups, action research, and portfolios. Reflection involves both looking
back at teaching experiences as well as looking forward and setting goals for
new or changed directions. Dewey (1933) suggested three attributes that can
facilitate the processes or reflective thinking: open-mindedness, responsibility, and
wholeheartedness. Open-mindedness is a desire to listen to more than one side of
an issue and to give attention to alternative views. Responsibility means careful
consideration of the consequences to which an action leads. And wholehearted-
ness implies overcoming fears and uncertainties to allow critical evaluation of
ones practice in order to make meaningful change.

Conclusions
In this paper, in trying to describe the nature of competence and performance
in language teaching, I have attempted to realize a somewhat ambitious agenda.
And any attempt to characterize the nature of quality, expertise, professional-
ism, or effectiveness in language teaching is liable to the charge of different
kinds of bias, since such an attempt is bound to reflect understandings that are
shaped by culture, by context, by individual belief and preference, as well as
by limitations in our present state of knowledge. These limitations, however,
should not prevent us from reflecting on the beliefs and assumptions that shape
the way we understand the nature of teacher knowledge and teacher develop-
ment for language teachers. For when we do so we are in a better position to
assess the goals of language teacher education, as well as the means by which we
seek to achieve them.

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In Competence and Performing in Language Teaching, Jack C. Richards
discusses what language teachers need to know and do to be effective
classroom practitioners and language teaching professionals. By
exploring the knowledge, beliefs, and skills that exemplary language
teachers consistently make use of focussing on ten core dimensions
of language teaching expertise and practice Jack C. Richards helps
conceptualize the nature of competence, expertise, and professionalism
in language teaching.
Jack C. Richards is an internationally renowned specialist in English
Language Teaching and an applied linguist and educator. He is the
author of numerous professional books for English language teachers
as well as many widely used textbooks for English language students.
His titles include the best-selling Interchange series, Four Corners,
Passages, Connect, and Strategic Reading.
Competence and
Performance in
Language Teaching
Jack C. Richards

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